“A twist and twirl.”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes. “A girl. There’s no women in the Corps. Everybody knows that.”
“There have to be a few.”
“I ain’t never seen one. And I think I’d a’ noticed.” He leered at me.
“So, like I said, I can’t get up the stairs—”
“But I bet I could,” he said eagerly. “You give me the coat and I’ll get yer man out—yer demon. You ’ave my word.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “I have a better idea.”
“Then get someone else to help you wi’ it, ’cause I got better things ter—”
Back he went.
“Cut that out!” he told me when I released him again, a minute later.
“Then stop wasting my time! We do it my way or not at all, and you can go back in here for good for all I care.”
He glared at me sullenly. But he didn’t say anything or try to attack me again, so I guessed that was something. “Here’s the plan,” I told him quickly. “I get into this box—”
“Wot?”
“Don’t interrupt me. And then you put it on the dumbwaiter—”
“Wot?”
“I said, no interruptions! And then you crank me up to the top level. The coat will bypass the wards, if they can even read me in here, which I doubt. And then—”
“And then you sit there, ’cause there’s nobody ter let you out!”
“I can let myself out.”
His eyes abruptly narrowed. “All right. Now I know yer telling me porkies.”
“What?”
“Porky pies.”
“Do you speak English?”
“Lies! Ain’t nobody c’n do that!”
“I can,” I said impatiently. “Or if not, I’m about to trap myself in a box in the most secure level of war mage HQ.”
He thought about that for a minute. And then his eyes brightened. “Y’know, I know some people who would be real interested—”
“We can talk about that later. Right now, I need you to get me up there.”
“And wot do I get?”
“The coat. As soon as I’m up, I’ll drop it back down the shaft. I won’t need it anymore. Then you can see if your run up the stairs works for you or not.”
“And how do you get back out, wi’ no coat?”